The Chronicles of Team Seven
by Killerqp
Summary: The lives of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke are all changed the day they graduate and become a part of team seven, the three man team led by the jounin Obito. As they go on missions they find themselves facing dangers and threats, and slowly start growing closer to each other. This is the story of team seven. (rewrite of the story) (narusaku) (might change to M in the future)
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** Hello people! I have been absent from this website for a while and I kinda just left my only story completely unfinished... And the reason for that was mostly lack of motivation and due to my huge amount of laziness. Though recently I have wanted to continue it, but I felt that I couldn't really work with what I had written so far(mainly because of characters being a bit OOC and plot holes that would be hard to fill), so this will be a fresh restart of it. Hopefully this time I won't drop it again.

I also just wanna mention that this story will contain romance between Naruto and Sakura and I know that some people don't like that pairing very much. If you're one of those people I hope that you can still enjoy this fic, as that's not the only thing I will focus on.

Anyways, here it is, I hope that you'll enjoy it!

 **Plot:** This is gonna be my "take" on a version of the Naruto series as a whole. A lot of things will play out differently and a major change is that Obito will have taken Kakashi's place as team 7's teacher. (Starts off at the beginning of chapter 3 in the Naruto manga).

 **Disclaimer:** I do not in any way own the Naruto series, it's characters or anything associated with it. The Naruto series is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. This is purely made for entertainment and I am in no way earning profit from this.  
(Don't really know if this is necessary, but I'm seeing everyone else doing it, so I thought I might as well.)

 **Note:** Surnames are said first just as they are in Japan (and because i watched the anime in japanese this is how i prefer it).

 **Note:** = Thought **  
Note:** "" = Speech  
 **Note:** _ **""**_ = Special speech (e.g Nine-tails)  
 **Note:** ~:~ = Flashback

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1: Graduation and a new team**_

Obito yawned loudly, without any intent of trying to hide the sound from the people that were passing by. It was early in the morning, grass still wet with dew, fog making Konoha look asleep. Beside him walked Kakashi, his long time friend and comrade.

"Lack of sleep yesterday?", asked Kakashi, not taking his eyes off of the "Icha Icha" book he was reading.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep much", Obito answered. Kakashi looked over at Obito.

"Were you up all night missing Rin?", he said teasingly.

"Yeah, I miss her, so what?!", he said, blushing slightly. Rin had been given orders to go to Sunagakure(the village hidden in sand, ally of konoha) to heal the kazekage who had suffered a great injury. She was one of the best healers of konoha and way outmatched all the medics from Suna, making her presence there important.

"I can't believe you guys haven't hooked up yet", commented Kakashi, still reading his book.

"It's... complicated, you know that", he responded. Kakashi shrugged his shoulders in response. Obito, feeling a bit uncomfortable cleared his throat and changed the subject.

"I'm sort of nervous about getting a new team tomorrow...", he said. "I hope I don't get any kids who will bully me".

 _"What the heck is this guy talking about...",_ Kakashi thought. "They're just kids..."

"Just Kids? Those little guys can be evil. Once I was in the park training on my new ninjutsu, and when I accidentally mess it up, it pushes me back and I fall down in a puddle. And then these 6 year old kids start laughing at me! One of them even kicked me!", Obito cried out.

"Ha... you really are kind of pathetic aren't you?", said Kakashi with a light chuckle. Obito glared at him and tried to hit his shoulder, but Kakashi evaded his punch swiftly.

Obito gave a sigh of defeat. "... I wonder if one of us will have Naruto as a student", he said.

"I don't know. Last time we met him was 12 years ago, it's not like we know him well".

"Yea, I just think it'd be good if he had a teacher who doesn't think of him as a monster, you know?", Obito said, concern evident in his voice. Kakashi nodded.

"You're right, but it's not like everyone hates him and I'm sure the sandaime(third hokage) will pick a great teacher for him, it doesn't have to be one of us".

"Yeah, I guess you're right", Obito answered and yawned once more.

* * *

Obito and Kakashi opened the big door leading to a big oval-shaped room with an oblong mahogany table in the middle of it. Several jounins sat at the table, in addition to the sandaime. They received glares from several of the jounins.

"Oh, you've arrived. We've been waiting for you", Said the sandaime. "What took you so long?"

"It's because this guy overslept like usual. Please don't blame me for the two of us being late", Kakashi said with a finger pointed towards Obito.

"Huh?! You're one to talk! You were completely slowing us down because you were reading your perverted book!", Obito said.

"Oh, let's not change the subject matter now", said Kakashi.

"How's that changing the subject matter?!".

"It's fine, don't worry about it... Just make sure to get here in time for the next meeting. Please, get seated", said the sandaime to the two.

Obito and Kakashi seated themselves at two vacant chairs.

"So, as you know, you are all to be assigned a team of three genin shinobi(ninja). It's your duty to help them grow and advance as shinobi...", began the sandaime. Obito only payed half attention to what he was saying, most of it was formal talk he didn't care about enough and was too tired to take in. Just as his eyes started to fall, Obito jolted up when the sandaime started announcing the teams. He listened closely, interested in what students he would be assigned.

"... Team 4, Kimura Takasu, Hamasaki Haruka and Hayashi Kinzo. Kakashi, I would like you to be in command of these three, do you have any objections?", asked the sandaime. Obito didn't recognise the clan names and was a bit puzzled about who they were.

"No, I don't have any objections sir", Kakashi responded with his usual monotone voice. Obito looked at Kakashi. He didn't look surprised, disappointed or happy about it. He wasn't surprised by this, Kakashi wasn't the one to show much care for things. Obito leaned his head against his palm, waiting for his team to be announced.

"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Obito, you'll be in charge of them, do you have any objections?", Obito was glad to hear that Naruto had ended up being in his team and sighed out a breath of relief.

"No, I have no objections sir".

* * *

Naruto looked into the mirror on his wall, reflecting him standing pridefully with Iruka's headband tightly wrapped around his forehead. After minutes of posing in the mirror Naruto grabbed a bag of ninja tools and rushed out of his apartment and onto the street. "Here I come graduation!", he shouted cheerfully, getting a few looks from passersby.

As usual, the sun was shining brightly providing warmth, and cicadas were heard singing in the trees. This wasn't unusual, Konoha usually had great weather because of it's geographical location. Despite this Naruto was somehow not warm with his iconic orange and blue clothing.

As he was running Naruto suddenly heard a quiet sneeze behind him. He turned his back, seeing a wooden textured blanket, not doing a very good job of hiding the person behind it.

"Konohamaru I don't have time for you right now".

"As expected from Naruto-niichan(brother Naruto)! You see through all of the Ninja tricks!", Konohamaru responded after he tripped on the blanket, confirming his presence.

 _"How can you call that a Ninja trick?"_ , Naruto thought to himself. "Of course I'd see through something like that. I am a Ninja after all!", Naruto said pointing towards his headband with his thumb, wearing a huge grin on his face.

"Ohh! It fits you perfectly Naruto-niisan!", Konohamaru responded enthusiastically.

"Well I have to go, it's Graduation day today!", Naruto said whilst starting to run towards the Academy again.

"SEE YA NARUTO-NIISAN!" Konohamaru shouted in the distance.

* * *

As Naruto entered his classroom he noticed his classmates excitedly talking about what teams they might join and how their future as shinobi would be like. Some of them were just hoping to enter the same team as their friends, but most of the girls were fighting over who was the most "destined" to become teammates with Sasuke.

Naruto– of course being annoyed by the situation– walked over to Sasuke who was sitting on one of the benches, with an expression so lacking of emotion that it almost was unsettling. Naruto had always pondered how he could always have that same face, even though practically all the girls were talking about him.

"SASUKE! I'm not gonna lose to you! Fight me and I'll prove that I'm better than you!", He shouted, slamming his hand down on the table Sasuke was sitting at.

"I don't care what you have to say... deadlast".

"What did you call me Sasuke-teme(jerk)?!". Naruto was growling at Sasuke, who was also glaring back at him in annoyance.

Suddenly the classroom door opened as two Kunoichi(female ninja) entered, fighting over who would enter the classroom first. It ended with a draw, but to them it was clear that one of them had won. Naruto stopped glaring at Sasuke and instead looked over towards them. He slightly blushed when he saw Sakura, even as she was angrily arguing with Ino about who of them had won. Their conversation ended when they had didn't have more insults to throw at each other and Sakura instead made her way towards Naruto and Sasuke.

 _"Sakura-chan is walking towards me!",_ Naruto thought and started smiling in excitement. Sakura smiled when she caught attention to Sasuke. Naruto, who was optimistically thinking she was smiling at him greeted her. "Good morning, Sakura-chan!".

"You're in my way Naruto!", Sakura said pushing him to the side causing him to fall to the ground. "Sasuke-kun, can I sit here?", Sakura asked, using the sweetest voice she knew.

"Do whatever... I don't care", Sasuke answered nonchalantly.

"Yaaay!", Sakura cheered in happiness.

Naruto stood up, feeling a bit sad about getting neglected, but forgot about it and seated himself on the rear side of the bench that Sakura and Sasuke were sitting on, glaring at Sasuke.

A couple of minutes later, the door opened once again and this time it was Iruka who entered the classroom.

"Good morning everyone!".

"Good morning Iruka-sensei(teacher)!", the class answered. Iruka laid down some papers he was holding on a table and looked at the class with a smile on his face.

"All of you are officially genin as of now, congratulations!", he said, causing a stir of excitement in the classroom, the reality of the situation kicking in. "I've got somethings to go through, so let's make this as quick and simple as possible. Starting of I'll announce the three-man teams you'll all be divided into". Small talk between the students began again.

 _"Well, as long as I'll be in the same team as Sakura-chan and not end up with Sasuke, I'm fine",_ Naruto thought.

 _"Please, let me end up in the same team as Sasuke-kun",_ Sakura desperately begged inside her head.

 _"Hn, what a pain",_ Sasuke thought to himself.

Iruka started announcing the teams one by one. Some people were relieved with their teams while others were left disappointed. Everyone was quiet, hoping for the best.

"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura...". Naruto jumped up from his seat, shouting happily, whilst Sakura had a gloomy expression on her face. "... and Uchiha Sasuke", this time Naruto was the one to get a gloomy face, whilst Sakura was the one jumping in her seat. Iruka announced the remaining teams until everyone had been assigned a team. "Well, that's pretty much it. Tomorrow each team will meet their respective Jounin teacher. Be here 6 o'clock tomorrow... Other than that, I wish all of you the best of luck. I know all of you will become perfect ninja each in your own way. It's been a pleasure teaching you!", Iruka said with a broad smile to his students.

* * *

 **BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE-**. Naruto slammed his hand on the alarm clock that was aggressively beeping beside him. He covered his head with a pillow to prevent the sunlight from the windows to come in any form of contact with his eyes. In what felt like five seconds the clock started to ring once again. Naruto slammed it, this time a bit harder, causing it to fall to the floor.

"Ahhhhh! Let me sleep 'ttebayo!", he said and yawned. He slowly dragged himself out of his bed to get the clock. His eyes were locked onto the clock for a while, dead faced.  
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! I'M LATE!".

Naruto swung open the door to the academy. "I'M TERRIBLY SORRY THAT I'M... late?". Sakura and Sasuke were alone in the room, the former of which was glaring at him.

"Naruto! WHY are you this late? You were supposed to be here 2 hours ago", Sakura shouted at him.

"Yeah... Sorry I overslept. But where is our teacher?".

Sakura kept glaring at him. "He's late.", she responded.

"Really?! What a relief! I thought I'd have to endure some sort of penalty".

Sakura sighed. "Well, you probably shouldn't stick to the habit. If we end up in some sort of trouble because of you, I'll make sure that you'll regret it", she said, cracking her knuckles audibly.

Naruto gulped. "Don't worry about it Sakura-chan...", he said and laughed nervously. Naruto knew Sakura could be really terrifying, so he reminded himself to keep this promise.

* * *

Naruto had occupied himself with observing a fly that had entered the classroom. He did this in an attempt to kill some time whilst waiting for their teacher to arrive. Not that he found it very interesting but he didn't know what else to do, as his attempts of conversing with Sakura were all to no avail and a conversation with Sasuke would probably be way more boring than the fly.

"AHHH! How the hell can a JOUNIN be this late?! It's been half an hour since i came here. AHH! I can't stand this!". Naruto exclaimed.

"Well he probably has his reasons. He might be on a mission or something. I don't think he would do something like oversleep as a certain _someone_ here", Sakura said. Naruto had to agree. A Jounin had to have his reasons... right?

* * *

 **BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEE-.** Uchiha Obito slammed his hand on the snooze button of his alarm clock, slowly turning over in his comfortable bed to look at the time. His face turned blank for a minute until he let out a scream.

* * *

Naruto raised his hand high up in the air and locked his eyes on the fly that had now positioned itself on his desk. In a fast movement he slammed his hand down.

"Got him!", he said, but soon came to realise the fly was very much alive, when it calmly flyed away somewhere in the classroom. Naruto grunted in anger.

"Naruto, what are you doing?", Sakura asked.

"I'm trying to get this fly. He has been bugging me ever since I got here", he responded.

"You can't even kill an insect and you call yourself a ninja? Ridiculous", Sasuke said.

"You wanna fight Sasuke-teme!?", Naruto shouted.

"A fight? You mean you want to get beaten?", Sasuke said with a grin glued to his face.

"I've had enough of you!", Naruto exclaimed and started charging towards him. Sasuke took a battle stance and awaited for his attack to come. Just as Naruto was close enough to get a hit on him Naruto got stopped by a heavy punch from Sakura that sent him flying across the classroom. Naruto glided across the classroom until he bumped into something. He looked up to see Obito standing at the entrance of the classroom.

Obito, having witnessed the scene, sighed.

 _"I think I'll start with some teamwork practice for these guys..."_

 **Next chapter: Training grounds of Konoha**

* * *

 **AN:** So, there we have it, chapter one, I hope you liked it. I have to say this took me a lot longer than I would've liked, but I'm glad that I actually got it done.

I also feel that this was quite a big improvement from my last story and I'd say that's mainly because the first one got a bit too "serious". This one includes a bit more comedy. I hope you didn't take the scenes that were supposed to be comedic serious (like Obito's fear of kids), because that could make the scenes a bit weird(please tell me if that's the case)... I think comedy is a good way to start and than later on move on to more serious moments.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading. Reviews, favorites, follows and all of that stuff is highly appreciated :)  
(Feedback and criticism on my writing and language is always appreciated, especially as English isn't my native language so there can be errors).


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** Hello there! It's been a while, sorry about that. But things have happened in my personal life and there's always school that tends to be in the way. This has reduced my free time and writing this fanfiction isn't my highest priority. Thus things have gone kind of slow for the fic.

Anyways, it's here now and it's quite a lot longer than last chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

 **Note:** Surnames are said first just as they are in Japan (and because i watched the anime in japanese this is how i prefer it).

 **Note:** _""_ = Thought **  
Note:** "" = Speech **  
Note:** ** _""_** = Special speech (e.g Nine-tails)  
 **Note:** ~:~ = Flashback

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2: Training grounds of** **Konoha**_ **  
**  
Obito sighed. " _These guys... What are they doing?"_ _,_ he thought as he was watching Naruto charge towards Sasuke with a fist high in the air, only to later get punched by Sakura in the stomach, sending him flying right across the classroom and stopping as he bumped into his legs. Naruto turned his head upwards to see Obito standing above him.

"Oh, hey! Are you our new teacher?", Naruto asked, as if nothing had just happened.

Sakura quickly retracted her arm that she just used to punch Naruto with, fixed her hair, seated herself and smiled.

 _"Why did he have to come_ _now_ _of all times, this is embarrassing. Will he think I'm some sort of sadist?! AHHHHH THIS SUCKS!"_ , thought Sakura.

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and seated himself.

Obito gave an uncomfortable short laugh. "Uhmm... Nice to meet you. My name is Uchiha Obito...". Naruto (who had also taken a seat), reacted as he heard the Uchiha name.

 _"So he's from the same clan as Sasuke. I hope he's not a prick like him, he does seem nice though",_ he thought.

 _"Sasuke-kun and him are from the same clan?"_ , Sakura thought, who also had taken notice of his surname

Sasuke couldn't care less.

"...As you know, I'm your new teacher. I'm thinking we should start with getting to know each other a bit better. I'm sure you're tired of being here. So let's go to the roof and introduce ourselves there!", Obito finished and turned his back to leave the classroom.

"So, why were you late by the way?", asked Naruto.

Obito stopped in fear.

 _"Yeah right. I'm late. What should I say, what should I say, what should I say?!"._

"Were you like on a cool mission or something?!", Naruto asked enthustiastically, hoping to hear an exciting story.

 _"Yes, that's right! I was on a mission. Thank you Naruto!"._

Obito cleared his voice. "Yes, yes, that's right. I was on a mission and there were slight delays because of unexpected reinforcements from the enemy. We fought hard and long, many were injured and people's lives were put at risk, but thankfully we all made it out alive". Of course this wasn't the truth. In reality he had overslept and stopped on his way to help an old lady with some groceries, but that would seem like a pretty lame reason to be running late. Naruto was impressed by the exciting story, but Sakura and Sasuke doubted that he was telling them the truth.

"Ohh! That sounds epic 'ttebayo! Can you tell more?! I want to hear it!", Naruto said.

"As much as I'd like to, I can't. You see it was a S-ranked mission. I'm afraid I might have said too much already", Obito responded.

 _ **"What a show-off!"** , _said Inner-Sakura.

Obito gave a sigh of relief, he had received a good response, or at least that's what he thought.

* * *

The newly formed team had gathered at the roof, the wind soothingly cooling them from the warm rays of sunlight. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke sat patiently on a wooden bench while Obito had seated himself on the railing of the roof.

"Hi again!" Obito said with a smile on his face. "As I've mentioned my name is Uchiha Obito, my interests are being on exciting missions and also spending time with loved ones and friends. As for dreams, I'd like to be hokage one day! And... well that's about it. You can introduce yourself in the same way as I just did. Let's go from left to right", he said and pointed to Naruto who was sitting on the left.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I'm interested in food, particularly ramen. My dream is to become the best Hokage and be acknowledged by the village!", Naruto said.

 _"He's definetly grown in an interesting way",_ thought Obito and smiled gently.

Next up was Sakura. "My name is Haruno Sakura, and I'm interested in... _someone._ I don't have any particular life goal... or, I do... revolving _someone..._ ", she said whilst blushing and shyly glancing over at Sasuke.

Lastly it was Sasuke's turn to introduce himself. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I'm not really interested in anything and there's little that I enjoy doing. I have no goal or dream", Sasuke said, whilst giving Obito a bit of a glare

Obito sighed. " _So_ _we didn't get to know anything more than his name. And is he pissed at me? Well I guess it's not all too surprising considering what happened with him way back".  
_

"So now that we've introduced ourselves, let me go over some important things. First of all, you've got one final test to go through before you are officially Genin".

"WAIT WHAT?! We just had a lot of tests, why is there another one?!", Naruto exclaimed.

 _ **"If I can't stay with Sasuke-kun because of this, you're DEAD!"** , _said Inner-Sakura. Although agreeing, Sakura tried to ignore this violent side of her.

"Why wasn't this test included in the exam?", she asked.

"Don't worry, don't worry. The test shouldn't be too difficult. It will focus on a skill that is very important for all Shinobi, so it's important for me to personally see how you perform", Obito responded. "If you pass it, we will start going on missions. These are divided into 5 different ranks: the D-rank, the C-rank, the B-rank, the A-rank and finally the S-rank. We will start off with the lower ranks than we will slowly move upwards. That was about all I had to go through. I have some things to take care of, so the test will be in about two hours or so. I'll see you then, we'll meet up at training ground number 7", Obito said and jumped off the railing he was sitting on.

* * *

Naruto was excited, he was finally well on his way to becoming a shinobi, it wouldn't be long until he would start going on exciting missions now that he was a genin (well almost) and had a team. His thoughts about his teammates were mixed. Of course he was very happy about being in the same team as Sakura, but the other member of the team was a problem. Not only did Naruto think of Sasuke as an annoying brat, it also happened that Sakura had a big crush on him, making things difficult for Naruto.

Either way there was nothing that he could do about it, so he decided to look for Sakura to ask her to go and eat with him. He would have a legitimate reason for it, as they were a part of the same team now.

Naruto caught up to Sakura, who he saw walking a couple of meters away from the academy. "Sakura-chan! Wanna have some ramen?", he asked kindly with a smile on his face. To his dismay, Sakura didn't look very happy about his presence.

"Why would I eat ramen with you anyway?", she asked.

"Well, we are on the same team now, so we should celebrate", Naruto said, still smiling.

"I'll only go if Sasuke-kun is with us, but he didn't want to eat with me earlier when I asked him anyway", Sakura responded and started walking away.

"Wait Sakura-chaan...", Naruto said, but she ignored him and was soon enough far away from him. Naruto let out a heavy sigh and kicked his foot at a small rock, making it bounce a couple of meters.

 _"Sasuke this and Sasuke that! Why is he so important to everyone?",_ Naruto thought. Kicking the rock once more and watching it slow down until it stopped beside another rock, making it hard to disinguish between the two... suddenly Naruto got an idea and started running towards the way Sakura had dissappeared.

* * *

Sakura was sitting on a wooden bridge arching over a serene river, surrounded by bright-pink cherry trees, whom's petals gently fell, cascading down the river. It was a location she found herself visiting whenever she wanted to be alone. The locations beauty, the shade it provided from the sun and the lack of people in the area really made it a great place to relax.

Sakura gazed down into the river, seeing the swaying reflection of her face. Her eyebrows pushed together, picking up a stone she threw it at her reflection, making her reflection dissapear, only to reapear again seconds later. She sighed and let her chin rest on the palm of her hand.

 _"Does my forehead really have to be this big? Isn't it enough that my curves are below average? If it was a little smaller, maybe Sasuke-kun would pay a bit more attention to me? Or maybe he's into big foreheads... maybe he asks me out... and then he kisses my forehead... Kyaaa!"_ , thought Sakura, fangirling over Sasuke, until she stopped and sighed. " _Like that'd happen..."._

"Hey Sakura".

The sudden voice calling out her name caught Sakura completely offguard. She lost her balance and almost fell down the river but got caught by the person behind her. Sakura knew who was behind her judging by the familiar voice, it was Sasuke without a doubt. Sakura turned around revealing her blushing face to Sasuke.

"Sa..Sasuke-kun?", Sakura said, surprised at his appearance.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you", said Sasuke. Sakura blushed, as even this simple statement was strangley intimate for Sasuke, even if he was acting unsual. Sasuke's unusual behavior wasn't a coincidence at all, it actually wasn't Sasuke, but Naruto who had used the transformation jutsu to look like him. Naruto sat himself down beside her. "What's up?,"

"I'm good. Just sitting here and... thinking about you", Sakura responded, emerald eyes seemingly gazing into his soul, leaving Naruto speechless, blushing like crazy. But he didn't want her to see how beautiful he thinked she looked, as he didn't want it to seem like Sasuke was into her. Therefore Naruto quickly broke their eye contact, much against his will. Sakura was left feeling dissapointed about the lack of a response. She averted her eyes back into the river and was once again reminded of her forehead that she disliked so much.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you... Do you think my forehead is ugly?".

 _"Not at all, I think your forehead is cute. Makes me wanna kiss it"_ , thought Naruto, but came to realise that he had said it out loud when he saw Sakura's cheeks hit a deep shade of red. _"_ _Crap..."_

"Something Naruto could say, right?", he said with an uncomfortable laugh, trying to save the situation. Sakura was once again left dissapointed.

"Speking of which... What do you think about Naruto?," he asked her. She looked at him for a second, wondering where the question came from.

"I find him annoying. He's always acting so childish and selfish and always manages to interfere in my life. He doesn't understand me at all". Naruto cringed, not receiving the response he had hoped for.

"I don't care about him. All I want is for you to pay attention to me", she said and looked at him with longing eyes. Naruto gulped, not able to keep his blood running up to his face. When she started moving her face slowly towards him he couldn't help but do the same. They got closer and closer, until the their faces were only centimeters apart.

"... Sasuke-kun", Sakura whispered quietly.

Naruto instantly pulled away.

"I gotta go, see you later", Naruto said hastily and quickly started running away.

"Wait, where are you going?!... Sasuke-kun?", Sakura asked, but he was already gone.

 _"Did we... almost kiss? Me and_ _Sasuke-kun? OH MY GOD! I don't know where that came from and I've never seen Sasuke-kun act that way, but I like that side of him. BUT WHY'D HE HAVE TO GO?!"_. Sakura let out a dissapointed sigh.

"It was so perfect too... Well, it's still a win for today!", Sakura said to herself and started humming happily.

* * *

Naruto kept running until he was far away enough to be sure that Sakura wouldn't be able to see him. Once he had gotten his breath back, he dispelled the transformation and let out a sigh. _"_ _Man, that didn't go very well, she called me annoying again and if anything I just made her like Sasuke more... I nearly kissed her, which was great and all, but not as Sasuke!"_. His eyes cast downward as he suddenly got an idea. _"_ _Wait a minute... what if I make him look like a jerk instead?"_ , he thought, grinning as he came up with a plan.

* * *

Sakura had sat waiting at the bridge, hoping that Sasuke would return eventually. But when Sakura had waited for awhile, she was assuming that he wouldn't return and decided to start heading home. Just as she was about to start walking home, she noticed Sasuke walking by, happy to see him, she quickly ran towards him.

"Sasuke-kun! Where did you go?", Sakura asked when she had catched up to him.

"Huh? What are you talking about?", Sasuke said, irritation prominent in his voice.

"Can't we just sit down and talk again?", she asked trying to sound cute with her voice.

"Did you join in on a prank of Naruto's or something?".

"No, of course not! I hate his pranks. Just because he's lucky to not have any parents around to ground him doesn't mean he can just do whatever he wants all the time. My parents would never forgive me if I acted like him".

Sasuke's eyes darkenend as he glared at her.

"Sakura. You're annoying", he said coldly and walked off. Sakura was left unmoving, his words repeating themselves in her head. Her head fell down to the ground and she quietly sat down on a bench, her mood having significantly subsided.

 _"I'm annoying?... Is that what he thinks of me?"_ , she thought and suddenly remebered how many times she had called Naruto the same thing. " _Maybe Naruto felt this way too... I guess I should be a bit more kind to him next time"._

* * *

On Naruto's way back to Sakura he saw Sasuke passing by, looking slightly irritated. He thought nothing of it and passed by him. He found Sakura sitting on a bench and for some reason she was looking really sad. Naruto ditched his plan and instead walked up to her to see what was going on.

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?", he asked.

"Oh, Naruto... yeah I'm fine", she answered with an unconvincing smile and then stood up. "I have to go home now, see you at the test tomorrow", she said and walked away. Leaving Naruto confused over her strange reaction.

" _I wonder what happened?"._

* * *

Another day had come and this time Naruto had been sure to wake up in time to avoid any danger after the threat that he had gotten from Sakura. He laid his alarm clock far enough away from the bed so that he would have to walk out of the bed to turn it off, thus forcing him to get out of bed. After he had gotten ready for the day he headed to their meeting spot, training ground number 7. He came 20 minutes early, which was a new record for him. Besides him there was only one person there, which to Naruto's dismay was Sasuke.

"Yo, Sasuke-teme".

Instead of responding Sasuke decided to ignore him, which was very effective in pissing Naruto off.

"Arghh... So you're going to ignore me huh?! Well I don't care!", Naruto said.

Sasuke still didn't respond.

"ALRIGHT! Just stay quite then!", Naruto said and walked a couple of meters away from him to seat himself underneath an oak tree to get some extra rest. The weather was very good that day. The sun was brightly shining, with just a few clouds covering the sky. There wasn't much wind, but enough to give a cooling breeze and make the leaves on the trees gently move. Naruto enjoyed the relaxing weather, so he let himself lay on the grass and watch the sunlight pass through the leaves. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted to sleep.

Naruto woke up when he heard a familiar voice. As he sat up, he saw Sakura talking to Sasuke. Whatever had happened the day before didn't seem to bother her anymore, as she was sweetly smiling at Sasuke.

"-and I was thinking that maybe you wanted to go together with me? Do you want to Sasuke-kun?", she said, hoping to convince him, but unsurprisingly Sasuke declined.

Naruto walked over to the two. "Hey Sakura-chan!", he said.

"Hey, Naruto", she responded, but quickly got back to talking with Sasuke again. "Sasuke-kun, do you think the test will be hard?".

Naruto sighed. " _I guess she's not very interested in talking with me"_ , he thought and then sat on a boulder close to the two of them.

"It doesn't matter, I'll pass either way. I sort of doubt if you two will though", Sasuke responded to Sakura's previously asked question.

"Are you kidding me?! You think I won't pass, but you will? We both know I'm way stronger than you!", Naruto said.

Sasuke huffed. "Keep dreaming".

Naruto grunted and crossed his arms. Sakura sighed lightly. They remained in a silence for awhile, until Obito came to the training ground shortly after.

"Good morning! I hope you all slept well", Obito said to his students who had surrounded themselves around him to hear what he had to say. Obito began explaining the rules and implications of the test. "This test might take some time. Your goal is to get a hit on my body, if you do, you win. If you want to continue being genin shinobi, you will have to succeed. If you approach me and continuously fail I'll return you here", Obito said and marked the position in front of him with a kunai. "Yup, It's pretty staightforward... are you ready?", he asked his students who nodded, prepairing for the test. "The test will begin... now!".

Naruto immidiatley darted towards him. As he got close to him he jumped up in the air, his fist driving towards Obito's body. Naruto made an impact, but noticed that the surface was hard. Where Obito just had been, there was now a log.

"Dammit, a substitution! And that hurt like hell!", Naruto said and rubbed his knuckles that had gotten a slight bruise after the impact.

"Naruto, charging in like that will get you nowhere. Do you really think he wouldn't be able to avoid your attack if you make it that obvious?", Sakura said.

"That was just a test to see his skills, ya'know", Naruto said unconvincingly, receiving a sigh from Sakura. "Anyways, where did the guy go? To the left, to the right, I can't see him... I'll go look towards the water stream and search for him there".

"I'll go this way", Sasuke said and started walking the opposite way that Naruto had. "Leave me alone, I don't want any disturbances". Sakura took a random direction and started searching that way.

* * *

Naruto had started growing impatient after a minute of searching. "Aaaahhh! Where is he?! This is hardly a fight when he just hides like this", Naruto said outloud.

"I'm not hiding", said a voice right behind him, startling Naruto. Naruto turned around and saw that the person behind him was Obito. He backed ever so slightly to have space to kick towards his torso. His kick was blocked by Obito, as he took his leg and threw him off balance. Naruto fell to the ground, but quickly got up. Naruto jumped back a couple of meters and started doing hand signs.

"Shadow clone jutsu!", Naruto said. He had made three clones, making there four of him. All of them charged towards him, two of them going to the left and right whilst the other two ran straight onto him. The clones and the original Naruto all attacked at once, but the attacks failed. Obito had stepped back to his left, taken the arm of one of the clones and swung it onto the rest versions of Naruto, who where destroyed and left the real Naruto on the ground.

Naruto grunted, but stood up again and ran towards him. When he had just gotten close to him he saw Obito do some hand signs and later saying "Rope lock jutsu!". Naruto felt ropes wrap around his body, throwing him off balance, making him fall to the ground.

"Hey, that's unfair!", Naruto said with a frown on his face.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get you back to the start point", Obito said as he picked a struggling Naruto up from the ground and lead him back to the marked area. "It's time for me to take care of the rest of your team. See ya, Naruto!", he said and walked away.

* * *

Sakura was walking around, a little lost upon what to do. _"_ _I_ _can't find him.._ _I guess I should go back to the marked area and see if anything is happening over there"_ , Sakura thought and turned around to walk back, only to see Obito approximately 8 meters away from her up in a tree, his back wide open for her. _"_ _Yes! This will be my opportunity, I've just got to sneak up behind him and then I'm set"_ , Sakura thought and then started executing her plan.

She silently got up into a tree, a couple of branches above him. She started making her way towards him and stopped right above and slightly behind him. She then jumped down towards him, trying to land a kick on him. As she came close to impact she all of a sudden saw two pair of red eyes. Her kick, much to her surprise passed right through Obito as if he was a hologram. Obito then disappeared and Sakura tripped, as her kick hit the branch at a weird angle. When she fell her surroundings turned black and she landed on a white flooring.

 _"What is happening?! Is this a genjutsu? I heard of those in class once, they are a technique used to confuse or trick your opponent",_ Sakura thought and stood up from the ground and looked around her. _"_ _I'm really lucky though that he made the genjutsu this obvious. If only I remembered how to escape it. What was it that you had to do? I can't remember. It was something regarding your chakra-. Oh, right! To escape a genjutsu you have to make a disturbance in your chakra system. Then all I have to do is release chakra in an inconsistent manner"._ Sakura sat down and charged up chakra and started channeling it throughout her body in inconsistent waves. This gradually made the effect dissolve and she found herself opening her eyes.

Sakura found herself sitting at the marked spot.

"Oh, Sakura-chan you woke up! Obito came here a while ago and dropped you off here", Naruto said who was sitting beside her, still wrapped in rope.

 _"Dammit, I guess genjutsu can manipulate the targets time perception even. It's pretty amazing"_ , Sakura thought. She then looked over at Naruto. "And what happened to you?", she asked.

"The bastard used some sort of rope tying technique and put me here! I'm going to get him though, when he gets back here!", Naruto exclaimed.

Sakura sighed. "But that's against the rules, isn't it? Besides, I don't think you will be able to, I'm sure Sasuke-kun can, but not the two of us. I mean isn't it a little odd though that they put a highly trained Jounin shinobi against academy graduates? Of course we'd be inferior, this feels like an impossible test to be honest", Sakura said.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, yeah, you're right Sakura-chan", he said approvingly.

Sakura shrugged it off after that as she didn't have the care to think about it.

"Maybe you need some help with that rope?", Sakura said and cut the rope with the help of a kunai.

Naruto took off the rest of the rope and stretched himself. "Thank you, Sakura-chan!"

"I wonder if Sasuke-kun is fine. I'm sure he can get at least one hit on him though", Sakura said.

* * *

Sasuke had been searching for Obito for a while, but had yet to find him. He sighed and started walking back to the marked spot, hoping to find Obito there.

After a minute of walking he had finally arrived, he saw Naruto and Sakura sitting at the marked area. He started walking towards them, hoping they could tell him where Obito was.

"Sasuke-kun, behind you!", Sakura shouted from her position.

Sasuke turned around and found Obito behind him. _"_ _Alright, there you are. It's time for me to get my hit in",_ Sasuke thought. He took out a kunai and ran towards him. When he had gotten as close as 2 meters from him, he threw the kunai at him. Obito easily dodged by going to the left, but a kick came flying from Sasuke from his right. He blocked the kick with one of his arms. Continuing his attack, Sasuke swung his fist towards Obito's face, which also got blocked by Obito's other hand. Sasuke then attempted to kick Obito with another kick, but missed when Obito backed away from it. Sasuke made some distance and started doing hand signs for one of his ninjutsu(Ninja technique).

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!", Sasuke chanted. A big fireball flew right towards Obito. But was extinguished after Obito made a water wall appear in front of it. Obito then came running towards Sasuke.

"Rope lock technique!", Obito said. This resulted in Sasuke being wrapped around with rope, just like Naruto had gotten before. Sasuke struggled, trying to get out of the rope, but failed. Obito walked over to him and cut loose the rope with a kunai. "Good work, but that won't quite do it", Obito then said, receiving an angry frown from Sasuke.

Obito then took Sasuke to the marked spot, where Naruto and Sakura were waiting. The three of them had started feeling anxious about the situation. All of them looked frustrated at themselves for not being able to do anything. Obito sighed and then started speaking.

"So. Can you guess what abilities that were supposed to be tested during the course of this test?", he asked the three of them. Sakura raised her hand.

"It was supposed to be a general test in fighting ability, I guess. Right?", she answered.

"Well, you could assume that, but no. This test was supposed to test your abilities in teamwork", Obito answered. His three students looked rather shocked. "It's rather questionable that three students would go up against a jounin don't you think? The only way you would have any chance was if the three of you had worked together! The real test wasn't about 'getting a hit on my body', but to show team effort in trying to do that", Obito continued.

"Couldn't you tell us that from the beginning then?", Naruto asked.

"I shouldn't have to. Teamwork should be a given. Why do you think you are divided into three man teams? Anyways, I will give you a second chance though. Just because I'm a cool guy", hope shined in Naruto and Sakura's eyes and Sasuke showed slight signs of relief. "I'll give you 10 minutes to think something through, then we'll do it again, but this time you'll work as a team and this time you really have to hit me".

The three of them surrounded themselves in a circle to discuss battle strategies.

"I knew that we should have done the test as a team. I should of told you", Naruto said, but it was obvious for Sakura and Sasuke that Naruto was lying. "Anyways. Do you have any ideas?"

Sasuke took the initiative to start the strategy talk. "It's safe to say that Obito-sensei has a superior quality than us in terms of skill. We have more quantity however and that's what we should try to take an advantage of".

"OH! He talked, I didn't know he could do that!", Naruto said with attempts of mockery.

Sasuke sighed with a tone of irritation. "I just want to get graduated and get this over with. If that means I will have to endure the pain of being in a team with you two, then so be it.", Sasuke said, pissing Naruto off and saddening Sakura. "...But if you mess things up for me. I won't forgive you". Naruto then crossed his arms and huffed, deciding that the discussion was over.

Sakura then raised her hand to show that she wanted to say something. "I was thinking that maybe the best way to get him would be by attempting to trick him. Like maybe we could use the transformation jutsu to confuse him of who is who. Or something like that"

"Great idea, Sakura-chan", Naruto said

Sasuke nodded lightly in agreement. "I think I have a plan", he then said.

* * *

A couple of minutes had passed and the three were ready. They turned around to face Obito, signifying that they were done.

"Alright! It seems like you are done. I will give you a countdown, when I say zero, you'll be free to attack me. Good luck!", Obito said and then began the countdown. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Zero!".

The moment the word 'zero' came our of Obito's mouth Naruto started doing the hand signs for the shadow clone technique. He managed to clone approximately 20 versions of himself. Obito was attacked by all them from left, right and in front of him. He smoothly started to take the clones out one after one, but he was interrupted when a fireball came towards him from above. To escape from this Obito had to jump backwards and, thus he had entered the forest.

Behind him he noticed Sakura charging at him with her fist. Obito skillfully evaded her attack by grabbing her wrist and moving her aside, making her fall to the ground and later be trapped by Obito's rope technique. Obito then returned to Naruto's clones, who were running towards him. He evaded their attacks and took out one after one until only the real Naruto was left. Naruto charged towards him a couple of times but his attacks were all evaded by Obito. Obito then decided to use the rope technique on Naruto as well.

Lastly, Obito was attacked by Sasuke who had charged in from his left. Sasuke went after continuos hits on Obito, driving him further into the forest. After continuos failed attacks from Sasuke, Obito used the rope technique on him aswell.

"Well, seems like you guys failed again", Obito said to his students who where surrounded by him, laying on the ground wrapped in rope. He then started casually stretching his back. Just at this moment however he was surprised when he saw the three of them vanish in smoke. "Wha-?!". Obito then felt a heavy impact on his upper body and fell to the ground. He turned around revealing the three of his students, grinning at him.

"HAHA! You fell for it! We tricked you!", Naruto said to Obito with the greatest smile of pride plastered on his face.

Obito let out a sigh of defeat. "Yeah, you got me alright... Hmmm... So I'm assuming you used Naruto's clones to distract me from you guys?". His students nodded.

"We used Sasuke-kun's fireball techinque to drive you into the forest, where we had climbed up in some trees. Naruto transformed two clones to look like me and Sasuke-kun. When you thought you had defeated us, we made our attack", explained Sakura.

"Well done. Strategy is really important to gain an advantage in a fight", he said as he dusted off his clothes.

"So!? Does that mean we officially graduate? Are we genin now?", Naruto asked, jumping in excitement.

"Yup"

"YEEEEESS! FINALLY!", Naruto exclaimed in happiness.

Obito chuckled. "Tomorrow you will have your first mission. We meet here at 8'o clock tomorrow. Until then, team seven dismissed!"

 _ **Next chapter: Chasing cats and pulling weeds**_

* * *

 **AN:** There you have it, chapter 2! Hope it was an enjoyable chapter.

I've been trying to change the behaviours of characters ever so slightly. For example, I've tried to make Sakura a little more self dependant and not all about  
 _Sasuke-kun_ and also a little less "bitchy". I didn't want to over do it though since I still want the character to be "him/herself". Please tell me if this was overdone or if there are other ways I can approve upon the characters.

 **Edit:** I remade some parts of this chapter to make the characters more like they are in the original manga (which was something I tried to change initially). I think it's better this way since it will give more opportunity to develop the characters and I also really like how the characters go from their flawed self and then growing as a person, I want to keep that in this fanfic, instead of abandoning parts of the characters development. I realise this chapter is very similar to the manga, but I felt like I really wanted the characters to be established the same way as in the manga. I will slowly divulge more and more from the original manga, so it's hopefully going to get increasingly exciting and interesting.

Other than that, I would like to thank you for reading. Reviews and such are really appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Hey guys I'm back again with another chapter!... oh wait... the last chapter was released almost two years ago... sorry about that, I've not really worked on this as much as I'd have liked. It started of as me having a bit of a writers block, and then I started procrastinating and then I procrastinated some more and all of a sudden, I had barley touched it for a year. I don't dislike working on this fic, but it takes a lot of time and I'm not a very patient person. I also redo a lot of stuff and think what I write isn't good enough, I'm just pretty perfectionistic. With that said I still got this chapter done eventually and I still want to continue writing this fic, just don't expect me to release very often (I will try, but don't expect anything).

I also have to mention that I rewrote a bit of the previous chapters, mostly just corrections in grammar and such, but I also mentioned Rin in chapter one and made quite a bit of changes to chapter two, so you might want to reread that. (I was stuck on redoing chapter two, so that slowed down the progress of c3 quite a bit too).

I also changed the title from "Team 7, led by Obito" to "The Chronciles of Team 7". I never really liked the old title and this new one I feel is better because the story won't revolve around Obito as much as the previous title suggests.

Anyhow, that's enough rambling. Let's get on with the chapter, I hope you like it!

 **Note:** Surnames are said first just as they are in Japan (and because i watched the anime in japanese this is how i prefer it).

 **Note:** _""_ = Thought **  
Note:** "" = Speech **  
Note:** _ **""**_ = Special speech (like Nine-tails)  
 **Nore:** ~:~ = Flashback

* * *

 _ **Chapter 3: Chasing cats and pulling weeds**_

Naruto stared into the pale blue eyes of a white cat infront of him. The cat looked innocent with it's little pink collar that proudly spelled out the name Yuki. She tilted her head and sat completely still, the tail slowly swaying behind her.

Naruto's clothes had spots of dirt all over and his face and skin had received several scratches. When staring at the cat irritably, he made sure to stay completely motionless and remaining dead silent. He then quickly raised his arms and jumped right towards the cat, successfully managing to grab hold of the cat in his arms.

"Yeah, I got you! Look who's struggling now!", Naruto said, but he spoke too soon. To his dismay, the cat got away after scratching his face. "AWWWW! THAT HURT! Sakura-chan, Sasuke, the cat is right here! Catch it!", Naruto said, making sure to inform his teammates the whereabouts of the cat.

Sakura and Sasuke quickly arrived after they had heared Naruto. They easily managed to catch it by having Sakura lure it towards Sasuke who then grabbed it, and calmly held it up in the air, the cat seeming strangely okay with it.

"Naruto how did you manage to fail several times to catch this thing when we manage to get it at the first attempt?", Sasuke asked. "You were the only one who encountered it too".

Naruto grunted. "Well, maybe because I soloed it and you didn't", he said.

"You got 15 tries on catching it though", Sakura said.

Naruto pretended he didn't hear her statement and continued speaking instead. "I even caught it a minute ago, but it slipped out of my hands and scratched my face. Look I'm bleeding", Naruto said and pointed towards the scratch mark he had received on his face. There wasn't much blood, just enough to give the wound a red tone.

"Oh geez. That looks real painful Naruto", Sakura said with an obvious tone of sarcasm.

"Well, I guess it doesn't hurt that much", Naruto said in attempts to impress on Sakura. She wasn't impressed.

"Let's go back to the hokage tower and get this mission done. Obito-sensei has probably been waiting for us quite a while now", Sasuke said. Naruto and Sakura both agreed and with that they started making their way towards the tower.

* * *

The three of them had arrived at the hokage tower and proceeded to open the door of the building. A couple of meters away they saw Obito, who was talking to Kakashi.

"Who's he talking to?", Naruto asked.

"I would assume he's another jonin. Maybe he's also in charge of a team", Sasuke said.

 _"He looks sort of suspicious, almost his whole face is covered up"_ , thought Sakura.

"We've captured the cat now Obito-sensei", Sakura said. Sasuke held the cat up in the air to show Obito the cat.

"Yeah, that seems to be the right cat. It took you long enough", Obito said after he had stood up from the bench he had been sitting on. Obito noticed his students glancing at Kakashi, and remebered that they'd never met him before. "This is Hatake Kakashi, a friend of mine. We were also in a three man team once. Kakashi, this is my students, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura".

"Yo, nice to meet you! I'm in charge of team 4", said Kakashi

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke greeted him back, when three people (seemingly the same age as team 7) entered the room.

"Oh, and that's my students", Kakashi said, referring to the three. Naruto examined the three of them. Two of them were male and the third member of the team was female. One of the two boys was holding a kitten in his hands and walked up to Kakashi.

"We caught the cat stupid.. So can we move onto something a bit more challenging now?", said the boy bitterly.

"Listen, you will get more challenging missions eventually, but not yet. You just became genin after all", Kakashi answered to the boy who was holding the kitten, receiving an irritated snort from the boy. Naruto turned towards the boy to introduce himself.

"Hi! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the guy who will surpass all previous hokages!".

The boy frowned at Naruto. "Oh, really. So the guy that has scrath marks on him after catching a cat wants to be hokage?", he said and let out a laugh. Naruto became enraged.

 _"_ _Who the hell does this guy think that he is?! He's as smug as Sasuke! I really don't like him"._ "Who the hell do you think you are?!", Naruto shouted.

"Better than you atleast", he replied. Before Naruto did anything stupid (such as getting into a fight with the boy) Kakashi interupted.

"Kinzo, don't act like a child. At least introduce yourself", the grey haired jounin said.

The boy, who's name apparently was Kinzo let out a loud dissatisfied sigh. "My name is Hayashi Kinzo", he then let one of his hands point towards the female member of the team "this is Hamasaki Haruka", he then pointed towards the last memeber of the group "and this is Kimura Takasu, we're from Amegakure(the village hidden by rain)". The members of team seven were left confused, hearing they're from Amegakure.

"What are you doing in Konoha if you're from Amegakure?", Sakura asked.

"None of your buisness. Forehead", said the girl named Haruka.

 _ **"Kill that bitch!"** _ raged Inner-Sakura. While tempted, Sakura decided to dismiss her inner's advise and instead settled with an angry glare.

Just before Naruto was about to heaten things up, Kakashi once again stepped in. "Alright, let's stop this before things get too childish. Obito good time talking to you-" Kakshi said and Obito nodded in response. "-and nice to meet you three". Kakashi said to the three genin of team seven. "You three, folow me. We're gonna find a new mission for you", he said as he led his team away.

When team 4 had left the building Naruto let out a couple of angry comments about them. Sakura asked about the gening instead. "Obito-sensei... do you know what those guys are doing here? They said they were from Amegakure, so why would they be situated in Konoha?".

"Hmm... I guess you could call them refugees", Obito said, getting a reaction from his students. "Kakashi told me a little about them earlier. You see, Amegakure is a village in the middle of a lot of nations, thus there are many battles occuring in the village. Many innocent people die there, so a lot of people end up fleeing from Amegakure, the members of team four being some of them", Obito explained.

"That must be hard...", Naruto said sympathetically, but quickly changed his attitude. "But they're still arrogant jerks". Naruto said, crossing his arms.

Obito chuckled. "Yeah, that's true. But still try to make sure they feel welcomed at Konoha", he said as to which Naruto and Sakura reluctantly agreed by nodding. Sasuke stayed silent.

"Sensei, what about this cat?", Sasuke asked who had been holding the cat for quite a while now and was getting severly tired of it.

"Oh right, I'll take her and bring her to her owner", Obito said and took the cat from Sasuke, the cat all of a sudden got angry and bit Obito's finger.

"Ouch!", said Obito and struggled with the cat, but failed as the cat managed to slip out of his arms and run out of the building. Obito's face turned white pale.

"Yeah, we're not getting that cat again", said Naruto and Sakura in unison. Obito sighed.

"... yeah, I'll fix that during my freetime".

"So are we dismissed now?" Sakura asked.

Obito nodded. "Yup, you're dismissed 'til tomorrow 9:30, where we'll meet here and you guys will have another mission, which is...", Obito stopped for a second and picked up a piece of paper from his pocket, he read through it and the put it back, continuing his sentence. "— which is removing weeds from peoples backyards".

Naruto cried out in misery. "Why do we have these boring missions 'ttebayo?! I can't stand it, I thought being a ninja was supposed to be exciting", Naruto said.

"Well someone needs to do these missions and since you are still rookie genin, you guys are the most suitable for them. Besides they're not _that_ boring", Obito said in response to Naruto's complaints.

The three of them glared at their teacher. "Oh, well if they're not that bad, then I guess you wouldn't mind having these missions with us would you?" Sakura said.

Obito froze, then chuckled nervously. "No, of course not... I can go with you on our next mission. Sure, it'll be fun", Obito said, knowing that he had screwed up. He remebered not being a big fan of these missions, but that was a long time ago, so it couldn't be that bad, could it?

* * *

This was way worse than Obito had remembered. He really wasn't enjoying the weed pulling. It was extremely boring and had started becoming slightly tiering after a while. Obito let out a dissatisfied breath and leaned back to take a rest from the boring chore. He looked at his three students, they looked as if they'd rather stare into a wall all day. Obito sighed and then cleared his throat.

"Alright, I see that you're almost done. So I would like to announce something", Obito said, grabbing his students attention. "I've decided that from here on out we will ditch the D-rank missions and move on to C-ranked missions instead", he continued and displayed a broad smile on his face. His students lightened up with relief and happiness, but it quickly faded.

"Wait, wait, wait. You're only doing because you don't wanna go on these missions!", Naruto shouted out in realization.

Obito flinched. "No, no of course not, what are you talking about? I just saw how much you didn't like this and as the great person I am, I made this decision", he said unconvincingly, his students dismissed it though as they had nothing to complain about.

"So, what kind of mission do you have in mind?", Sasuke asked Obito.

"I haven't quite gotten to that yet. I will try to find something suitable for you guys. We can meet up eight tomorrow morning at the Hokage tower, I think I should have found something by then... but, you still have one mission left though", Obito said.

"WHAT?!", Naruto and Sakura screamed out in unison.

 _"I guess I should've told them about this earlier",_ Obito thought. "Sorry, but I've already accepted the mission, so you'll have to carry it out. Oh and I won't be able to go, since I'll be looking for a mission for you guys".

Naruto sighed in disappointment. "So, what is this mission we'll be having?".

Obito loosened up and smiled at his students, hoping that this would decrease the anger he would receive from his students. "Babysitting".

To Obito's dismay his charisma didn't work.

* * *

Team 7 were now standing in front of the door leading to the house in which they were going to babysit. Sakura lifted her hand and knocked on the door. It didn't take long until the door was opened by a man in his mid 30's, his hair was black and backslicked, he was dressed up in fancy clothing signifying that he would be attending a more formal occasion.

"Hi! You're the ones to babysit my child, I'm assuming?", he asked.

"Yes, we are, my name is Haruno Sakura, this is Uchiha Sasuke and this is Uzumaki Naruto", Sakura said, introducing their team to the man.

"My name is Yukimura Ryota, nice to meet you. Please come inside", he said. Team 7 all walked into the house, taking off their shoes before entering. "I'll go get my daugther down here before I go", the man said and went upstairs. In the meantime Naruto looked around the house,. It was a huge house, the bottom floor probably three times as big as Naruto house. It was very tidy with expensive furniture everywhere and paintings hanging on the wall, it was very clear that the family were doing very well financially. Even though the house looked very nice, it lacked warmth and character.

After a minute Ryota came down the stair with a little girl around the age of 4 in his hand, hiding behind her father.

"This is Hana, my daughter", Said Ryota, Naruto and Sakura greeted the girl, Sasuke tried to look a little more friendly, but looked bored more than anything. "Hana, these are shinobi who will be babysitting you when I'm gone for tonight. Say hi". The girl didn't say hi, instead she hid herself even more behind her dad.

"It's nothing personal she's just kind of shy", Ryota whispered to the three. "I have to go now. I'll see you at 10. There's plenty of ingredients in the fridge that you can use to cook dinner with, and make sure she's asleep at about eight", he informed them before turning to his daughter. "Goodbye Hana, I'll see you later okay?", he said and gave her a hug and then he was off.

Hana stood standing in the middle of the hallway, looking kind of lost. Sakura picked up on this and approached her.

"Hana, what do you want to do? Are you hungry?", Sakura asked. The girl didn't look her in the eyes but nodded her head. Sakura looked at her teammates.

"She's hungry, so let's prepare some food".

* * *

Sakura opened the fridge of the Yukimura's. It was full of ingredients, many of which looked quite expensive.

"Wow, that's a lot of ingredients... We have a lot of options on what t-", she started, but got interupted by the whistling sound of a kettle. She turned around to see that the voice had come from Naruto who was boiling water in the kettle.

"What's the water for?".

"This", Naruto said and held up a package of instant ramen noodles, before he knew it there was a steak on his face, that quickly fell to the floor revealing to Naruto Sakura's angry face.

"You can't eat that kind of food for dinner! Let's make a proper meal instead!", said Sakura.

Sasuke, who had been having an expression saying "I really don't want to be here", laid his eyes on the piece of meat that had fallen to the floor.

"What a waste", he said, looking at Sakura. Sakura started blushing in embaressment, barely having realised what she had done.

"Oh... yeah, you're right, what was I thinking? Haha!", Sakura said akwardly and returned back to the fridge. She then heard running water and looked over at Naruto, who was now holding the steak under the tap.

"Naruto... what are you doing?", Sakura asked. Naruto looked over at her with a smile on his face.

"Sakura-chan don't worry. The meat is fine if you wash it, dattebayo!", Naruto said convincingly. Receiving a sigh from Sakura.

"You're really more stupid than I thought", said Sasuke mockingly.

"Say what!? Sasu-".

"Hana not like steak", said Hana out of nowhere, interrupting Naruto. They all looked at her slightly taken a back, as she had been completely silent since they got there.

"How about instant rame-", Naruto started, but interrupted himself when seeing an angry glare coming from Sakura. "- how about... fish?". Hana nodded approvingly. Sakura came to the decision that they could make sushi, and told her teammates what to do.

"... I'll give Hana some company and you can start making the food in the meantime", Sakura suggested and sat with Hana who had sat down at a kotatsu(a type of table from japan) in the kitchen. Naruto and Sasuke were left a bit lost on what to do, neither of them had really made a proper meal before.

"Sasuke, you fix the fish and I'll do the rice", Naruto suggested. Sasuke nodded as he didn't really have much of a better idea. After Naruto had found a bag of rice he stared at it for awhile, wondering where to go from there.

 _"What do I do with this... I could ask Sakura-chan, but I don't want to bother her..."_ , thought Naruto. In the meanwhile Sasuke was looking at a piece of salmon he had put on a cutting board.

 _"I just have to cut it I guess, kind of like using a kunai?"_ , Sasuke pondered.

Sakura noticed that Hana was looking a bit uncomfortable, so she decided to try to make her feel a bit better by starting a conversation with the girl.

"Hana-chan, is there anything that any hobbies that you have?", Sakura asked, realising it was a rather boring question.

"Hob-bee?", Hana asked, clearly unfamiliar with the word.

"Something that you like to do", Sakura clarified.

"Hana like drawing!", she said enthusiastically.

"Oh really? How about you show me some drawings?", Sakura asked. Hana nodded and quickly got up to get some of her drawings, she ran up the stairs where her room most likely was. Sakura was left waiting when she suddenly started smelling something burning. She looked over and saw smoke from coming from the stove. Naruto was panicking and didn't know what do. Sakura quickly ran over to see what was going on.

"Uh... Sakura-chan, what do I do?!", Naruto asked as she came up to him. She noticed Naruto holding a frying pan filled with rice that had been burnt black.

"Did you try to _fry_ rice?!", she asked in exasperation and disbelief. She turned off the stove and let the frying pan stand on one of the cold plates.

"Is that the wrong way to do it?".

"Yes. You're supposed to boil the rice when making sushi...", she let out a heavy breath "I'll do it instead, you go keep Hana company in the meanwhile", said Sakura commandingly.

"... yes ma'am", Naruto said, dissapointed that he didn't manage to do anything helpful.

"I'm done", said Sasuke who had finished slicing up the salmon. Sakura looked over at the salmon, seeing that the slices looked more like cubes than sushi slices.

"That's pretty good, Sasuke-kun! You could cut them just a little bit thinner though, I can show you-".

"If that's not good to you, do it yourself", said Sasuke and walked to sit down at the kotatsu.

"N-No! They're good! It's fine", Sakura responded to Sasuke.

"Sakura-chan I could fix the salmon", suggested Naruto.

"No way".

"Sakura-chaaan...", cried Naruto. Hana got back into the kitchen looking a bit confused until she found Sakura and walked up to her.

"Drawing", said Hana holding pages of paper towards her.

"Oh, I'm sorry I can't look at them right now. I had to take over making the food, maybe you can show them to me after dinner? You can show them to Sasuke and Naruto in the meantime if you want to", said Sakura making Hana a little dissapointed. Still, Hana seated herself at the kotatsu and showed her drawings to the two boys instead. The first one she showed them was a picture of what looked like herself and some sort of animal.

"A cat?", asked Sasuke, pointing at the animal on the drawing. Apparently he said something wrong because Hana's eyes started to tear up.

"Huh?! Can't you see that's a horse? Right Hana-chan", said Naruto, who was correct, making Hana smile.

 _"How the hell did he know that was a horse?"_ , thought Sasuke, trying to look at it from another perspective, still not seeing it.

Hana had decided to focus her attention on Naruto and showed him some more drawings. Sasuke didn't really care... much.

Sakura glanced at the two, noticing Naruto goofing off making Hana laugh.

 _'He's not that bad with children. Must be because he's so childish himself'_ , thought Sakura.

It didn't take long before Sakura was finished with the food and announced it to everyone. She put a plate of sushi on the kotatsu they were sitting at, it all looked very well made, except for the cube shaped salmon that Sakura had left untouched. Everyone dug in, enjoying the food.

"This is very good Sakura-chan!", Naruto said to her.

"Thanks", Sakura said and turned to look at Sasuke. "What do think Sasuke-kun?", she asked.

"It's okay I guess", Sasuke said. Sakura inwardly sighed, "okay" wasn't really a compliment.

* * *

"It's not happening".

"Oh come on Kakashi!", said Obito. "It's not like we're going to do an A-ranked mission or anything, we're just gonna gather some information. They are ready to take the next step now don't you think?".

Kakashi sighed. "Yeah they are growing fast, but I don't feel too good about Amegakure, I don't know if my team are ready for that yet...", said Kakashi. "...and I think the whole missing people thing might be connected to something more dangerous". Obito gave him a questioning look. "I don't know, it's just a hunch", Kakashi said. His voice was very serious and Obito was afraid to admit that Kakashi many times was right about his hunches.

"Well... I guess we'll have to be careful then", said Obito.

"I told you already, it's not happening".

"I know, but... I already accepted the mission for me and team 7", said Obito, his mouth twitched nervously. Kakashi's eyelids drooped . "It's no worry, I mean I'm with them, so it's fine. But it'd be even safer if you followed along too! It's a great oppurtunity for them to grow, you know".

Kakashi sighed. "I guess I have no choice...".

* * *

"Sasuke, your eights!", said Naruto in anticipation.

"Go fish".

"What?! You had eights just a while ago!".

"Naruto, didn't you remeber? Hana and I took them from Sasuke-kun", said Sakura, Hana who had teamed up with her was nodding agreeingly beside her. Naruto sighed in defeat and took up the last card, which was a king, his hand now consisting of three kings, one eight and one ace.

"Naruto, kings", said Sasuke. Naruto glared at him, reluctantly giving him his cards. Sasuke then turned over to Sakura and Hana.

"Aces"

"Wow, Sasuke. Impressive speaking abilities that you have", said Naruto sarcastically.

"Atleast I don't suck at card games, deadlast", responded Sasuke.

"Say wha-", started Naruto but stopped himself when he heard Sakura cracking her knuckles.

"I don't have any aces Sasuke-kun, go fish", said Sakura. It was now her and Hana's turn. "Gimme, aces", said Hana looking at Naruto. Naruto dropped his head in defeat and gave her his last card. After that Sakura and Hana managed to get the last remaining pairs from Sasuke's hand and the game ended with Naruto having two pairs, Sasuke having four pairs and Sakura and Hana having the remaining seven.

Hana cheered happily at their win and gave Sakura a high-five. Sakura glanced over at the clock and saw that it was 9:30.

"Crap, it's already 9:30!", said Naruto.

"Already?", said Sakura and looked at the clock to confirm what Naruto said. "Well, in that case you've got to go to bed", said Sakura to Hana, who after a while reluctantly agreed to go to bed.

By the time Hana got to bed, it was 9:45. Hana laid in the bed and Sakura sat at the edge of the bed tucking her in. "Goodnight Hana", said Sakura.

"Goodnight,", answered Hana as her eyelids grew heavier and eventually closed.

* * *

When the clock was five minutes past ten, Ryota finally got back home, thanked the three shinobi for their help and they made their way home.

They walked together side by side. The sky was dark but the moon and stars managed to light it up. Despite it being late, Konoha seemed more alive than ever. People were walking down the streets talking and laughing happily, resturants stood open, filling the air with pleasent smells.

"Tomorrow we're going on our first mission, huh", said Naruto excitedly. "What do you think we'll do? Maybe fight some bad guys!".

"It's just a C-rank mission, so it's probably not going to be very intense", Sakura said, dissapointing Naruto slightly.

"Meh, it's exciting either way", said Naruto, receiving a nod from Sakura.

"It's all just child's play, nothing exciting about it", said Sasuke. Naruto glared at him.

"Haa... you really do have a stick up your ass", commented Naruto. Sasuke glared back at him, before walking off.

"Where are you going, did I hurt your feelings?", said Naruto snickering. Sakura glared threateningly at Naruto.

"My home is this way".

"Ok, see you tomorrow then", Naruto said. Sasuke put a hand in his hair to wave goodbye, which was surprisingly expressive for him.

"Sasuke-kun, can't you walk me home?", Sakura asked Sasuke. He didn't respond, devastating Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, I'll walk you home!", offered Naruto.

"No thanks", said Sakura with passive agressiveness in her voice. Naruto's head fell. Their home was the same way though, so they still walked with each other for a while until they went off their seperate ways.

"Goodnight Sakura-chan! See you tomorrow!", said Naruto and ran off, waving with both of his arms to her.

"Goodnight", Sakura said and walked inside of her house to go to bed, prepairing for the upcoming day.

* * *

"He's late again... isn't he", said Naruto to his other two teammates, who were sitting in the Hokage tower awaiting their sensei.

"It seems so", said Sakura. Sasuke gave an acknowledging look. Naruto sighed.

"I even got up extra early today and all...", he said. Minutes later they saw Obito finally enter the building. "Obito-sensei, what took you so lo-", Naruto started, but was interrupted as he noticed the members of team 4 coming close behind him. Naruto and Sakura stood up from their seats.

"What are _they_ doing here?!", they said angrily in unison. Obito looked at them and hesitated, knowing the reaction he was about to recieve.

"We're going to be going on a shared mission together with team four".

Naruto and Sakura weren't very pleased.

 _ **Next chapter: Departure for Amegakure**_

* * *

 **AN:** Wow, finishing this chapter feels a bit surreal to be honest. I took such a long break and now that it's done I feel really relieved, like a weight off my shoulders. Sorry again for the delay.

I hope you liked the chapter, it might not be much considering the wait, but personally I'm pretty proud of it. I was wondering if I should have removed the babysitting part, but I think it would be a good chance for team 7 to get a little bit more used to each other before the mission and I found a lot of it to be very funny and charming, I hope you feel the same way.

I know things are still quite boring, but we're finally getting into the first arc of the story. Yay! And things will just pick up from here. I've got a _lot_ of ideas that I'm really looking forward to writing, I think it's going to be great.

If you have any questions, feedback or something, feel free to leave a review as I can learn a lot and it'd be great to get your input on things.

With that said, thanks for reading and I'll see you next chapter, hopefully there won't be such a long wait this time.

Thank you for the follows, favorites and reviews. It really keeps me motivated :)


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** Hey guys! I'm very happy to say that this chapter is already done! Yay, not that long of a wait this time. I've been really trying to force myself to write, even if I don't really feel like it, hopefully this will make it into a habit and not something I have to force myself to do. It's been hard, but I hope it'll be worth it.

I want to mention that I'll do my own take on a lot of things in this story. I know the way I portray Amegakure for instance isn't 100% accurate with the canon, but I did this because I wanted to do something different instead. So if there's something that comes up that contradicts canon, it's (hopefully) not a mistake, but my own take on it. But of course I'll try to stay consistent with all of the rules I've made myself in the story to avoid plotholes.

Thanks for the reviews I got on the last chapter btw! I really appreciate it :D

Anyways, here it is, enjoy! :)

 **Note:** Surnames are said first just as they are in Japan (and because i watched the anime in japanese this is how i prefer it).

 **Note:** _""_ = Thought **  
Note:** "" = Speech **  
Note:** _ **""**_ = Special speech (like Nine-tails)  
 **Nore:** ~:~ = Flashback

* * *

 ** _Chapter 4: Departure for Amegakure_**

Naruto kicked his feet huffily in the ground. He was walking on a path in the middle of an endless forest, with the rest of team sven and the members of team four. They were on their way towards Amegakure to have their first 'real' mission. But the fact that team four had joined them on the mission really bothered Naruto. This was supposed to be an epic first mission filled with action. Not a frustrating mission with team four. He let out a dissatisfied sigh.

"Why couldn't we've had a mission without these guys, dattebayo!? They're just a bunch of stuck up jerks anyway!", Naruto said, crossing his arms over his chest. He said this to Sakura and Sasuke, team four too far away from them to hear anything, and Obito and Kakashi were walking a bit ahead of their students, arguing over whether or not the Icha Icha books were a waste of time. Sakura was—much like Naruto—not really that pleased to have been matched up with team four. This was evident by her occasional glares at the team, specifically Haruka. Sasuke didn't care.

"I mean, it's not like we know them very well. So it's kind of unfair to judge them too much", Sakura responded hesitantly, trying to give the members of team four the benefit of the doubt.

 ** _"But that Haruka girl is_ _a bitch!"_** , exclaimed Inner-Sakura in protest.

"And the only thing you do is complain Naruto!", scolded Sakura.

"As long as they don't get in the way, it doesn't matter", Sasuke commented, not really seeming to be saying it to anyone in specific, as he gave neither Naruto or Sakura any eye contact.

Naruto let out a heavy breath, clearly not happy with his current situation. Just when they were getting excited to have a new mission, team four had arrived with Obito and Kakashi. Obito had announced to them that they'd go on a joint mission with team four and started going in to detail about the mission.

~:~

"So as you know, we will be having a C-rank mission, which is a bit harder than the D-rank missions— Not anything life threatening of course, but still, it could be a little big dangerous, I guess", Obito explained. He cleared his throat. "Now let me explain the mission. So recently there has been an increasing amount of missing shinobi from Amegakure, and _our_ mission is to go there to investigate to understand what's happenin", he continued. Upon hearing Obito mention Amegakure, team four alerted their attention. "We'll travel by foot, so it'll take about two days to get there".

A question spawned in Sakura's mind and she raised her hand in the air. "I thought that all missions are in some way supposed to be beneficial to Konoha, like, protecting it from enemies or something. Doesn't this mission just concern Amegakure?".

"Yeah, that's true. This whole situation might just be a problem that only concerns Amegakure, in which case Konoha doesn't need to get involved. But this many missing shinobi is weird, to say the least, and concerning. So imagine if this spread to Konoha? Again, we really just want to understand what's going on", Obito explained.

"And that's all we are going to do, gather information. Not something stupid like try to find the person or people behind this. Ok?", Kakashi said to the genin, the tone of his voice being somewhere between serious and goofy, a weird mix. The genin all nodded in agreement, Naruto hesitantly so.

~:~

The mission seemed exciting to Naruto, not anything breathtaking, but exciting nonetheless. Despite this, he just couldn't begin to enjoy the experience with the presence of team four. He glared over at the three genin, observing their actions. At first glance, they didn't seem bad at all. They were casually talking with each other as if they had been friends forever– which, thinking about it they probably had. Still, Naruto knew full well that at least the white haired member of the team Kinzo, wasn't very friendly.

"Hey, what you staring at?", asked Kinzo who had turned around after noticing that Naruto was observing them.

"A bunch of losers!", Naruto countered, dragging out the vocals of the words 'losers' to emphasize his point.

"Haha, how original. I guess that kind of humor is what you'd have to expect from Konoha shinobi", Kinzo said, grinning mockingly.

"Kinzo, you don't have to-", started Takasu, the third member of the team who hadn't shown much presence over his teammates.

"It's just funny how you all run around thinking that you're actual shinobi. But you're really just a bunch of babies aren't you?", Kinzo continued, completely ignoring his teammate.

"You sure about that?", Sasuke asked, looking Kinzo challengingly in the eyes. Unlike Naruto, he wasn't expressing anger, but confidence.

"Hmmm... no I'm good, I think that orange thing is enough proof to me", Kinzo said pointing a finger at Naruto. Naruto finally snapped.

"THAT DOES IT!", Naruto shouted and darted right towards him. In a hasty movement, Naruto threw his right fist towards Kinzo, aiming for his face. Just as Naruto thought he was about to hit him, Kinzo quickly brought up his forearm infront of his face and Naruto made impact, but immediatley retracted his arm.

"AAAAAAHH!", Naruto screamed, holding a swollen fist. Trying to grasp what just happened, he looked over at Kinzo and noticed a large plate of metal on his forearm, acting as a shield. He watched it strangely melt back into his arm. Was that what caused his hand to hurt so bad? It must have been.

 _"... what just happened? Did metal just come out of his forearm?"_ , thought a wide–eyed Sakura.

 _"A bloodline limit?",_ wondered Sasuke. He was suddenly really interested in Kinzo and his abilities.

Kakashi and Obito had arrived at the scene after having noticed the commotion their students had made. It didn't take long for Kakashi to connect the dots when noticing the metal fluxing into Kinzo's arm, and Naruto's swollen fist. He let out a long sigh.

"You know, you're supposed to be teammates now, not enemies... Alright, I guess we better divide ourselves up a little bit, if you're going to act this childishly", Kakashi said and walked ahead with his team. Obito sighed. Going on a joint mission with team four might not have been a very good idea after all. He was thinking that it could be a good way for them to grow by cooperating with others, but the genin of team four and seven seemed to blend like water and oil. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke weren't even that close as a team yet after all.

"Obito-sensei, why are we teamed up with those guys", asked Naruto with a low voice, head bent down after his failed attempt to stand up to Kinzo.

"... Well, me and Kakashi know each other well, so our teamwork is pretty good and having more people on a mission is always a good thing, especially when we're just gonna gather information. Besides, they've known each other for a very long time, so their teamwork is pretty amazing. You guys could learn from them", Obito said. _"I'm starting to doubt it was a good idea though"._ Naruto folded his arms, unwilling to accept Obito's statement.

* * *

Takasu had his hands inside of his pockets and looked over at a grinning Kinzo, satisfied with himself. Takasu frowed, hesitant to say something, but made a choice. "Kinzo, you went a little overboard, don't you think?". Kinzo wasn't pleased by this, he looked over at Takasu, frowning.

"Takasu, they're from _Konoha_. Why do you even care?", said Haruka. Takasu averted his eyes downward and clenched his fist. He didn't _want_ to go against his teammates, especially not Haruka... but their behavior was just not okay.

"Hey! I can hear you", said Kakashi who was walking infront of them. Kinzo and Haruka cringed, he wasn't supposed to hear that. "Listen, I know that you don't like Konoha that much yet. But we're actually not bad people, believe it or not". What he said made sense of course, and they both knew he was right. But they wouldn't admit that.

"Whatever", said Kinzo and crossed his arms defiantly.

* * *

As the sun went down, it painted the sky a soft mix between orange and pink. The constant rattling of leaves progressivley subsided with the wind. The birds singing faded with the growing chirping of crickets. Obito came to a stop and turned around to face the genin of team seven and four.

"It's getting kinda dark, so we'll stop for today", announced Obito.

"Eh, already!? I can continue!", complained Naruto.

"Are you dumb?", spat Haruka, getting an angry glare from Naruto.

"Naruto, you need to rest too, otherwise you won't have any energy later", said Kakashi. Naruto pouted, but still complied and didn't complain any more. "Anyway, we're gonna need to get a fire started for the night. So we're gonna need some wood for the fire. Just look around a little for dry sticks, branches, stuff like that. Me and Obito are going to get the fireplace prepared in the meantime". Their students nodded and were just about to walk off their seperate ways, when Obito interrupted them.

"Oh, and we're going to split you up a bit", Obito started.

"Can I go with Sasuke-kun?", Sakura asked.

"Actually, I was thinking we should split you guys up with team four... hehe", he said to his students. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but they needed to get used to each other anyway.

 ** _"NOOOO THANK YOU!"_ , **complained Inner-Sakura.

"No way!", cried Naruto in protest, all in vain of course.

"Let's see...", Obito began, rubbing his chin in thought. "Ok. Naruto, you go with Takasu. Sakura, you're going with Haruka, and Sasuke you'll be with Kinzo", Obito said, leaving the genin dissatisfied, except for Sasuke who didn't care and Takasu, who didn't have anything against team seven.

Naruto glanced over at Takasu, realising that he actually hadn't heard him say anything. Looking at him, he didn't seem unfriendly at all, quite the contrary. He was about the same height as himself and had shoulder-length navyblue hair. And his face looked... calm? It was the best way Naruto could describe it. But still. He was friends with Kinzo and Haruka, so he'd have to be a douchebag too. Right?

"Uhm– Let's go this way I guess?", said Takasu to Naruto, pointing at a random direction. Naruto nodded slowly.

 _"... He's not insulting me?"_ , he thougt as they began walking.

"Umm... Can I ask you something?", asked Naruto. Takasu nodded yes. "... Why do your teammates hate us?".

"Oh... I don't think they hate you, or Konoha either for that matter". Naruto looked at him, questioningly. "As you know we're from Amegakure, it's where we've lived all our lives. But things got... tough there. So we had to flee from our village. But Kinzo, I guess he hasn't really moved on yet. I think that's why he can't accept Konoha. He'd have to leave his past life behind him. As for Haruka... she takes Kinzo's side whatever he does, so. It's nothing personal against you guys... I don't think atleast", he explained.

 _"What? This guy actually seems pretty okay"_ , thought Naruto. "Honestly... I'm still kind of pissed at them, but I understand 'ttebayo!", he said and grinned, getting a smile back from Takasu.

"So what's it like in Amegakure anyways?", Naruto asked as he bent down to search for something that could be used for the fire.

Takasu went quiet for a bit until he answered Naruto's question. "It's.. horrible. It rains almost all the time, whenever there was a conflict between nations we had to hide, and–", he said but hesitated.

"And?".

"No, it–it's nothing", Takasu said as he picked up a big branch. Leaving Naruto wondering what he was going to say. He didn't want to press him on the issue though, their past had obviously been hard for them.

* * *

Sakura shot an angry glare toward Haruka, who occupied herself by searching for sticks on the ground. Sakura had been ignored by her the whole time, she'd had been acting as if Sakura didn't even exist. Not that Sakura had tried starting any conversations either. But atleast she acknowledge that she was there.

"What's your problem?", Sakura asked her. Haruka peeked over her shoulder, finally showing some recognition toward Sakura.

"There's no problem forehead", she responded. Sakura scowled.

"I don't understand what you guys have against Konoha? Especially that Kinzo guy, he's being so childish", Sakura said.

" _Don't_ insult him", said Haruka with a low voice, her amber eyes darkening. Sakura grinned, knowing that she'd found a weak spot.

"... Do you have a crush on him or something?".

"Wha-What?!", she said unconvincingly, red appearing on her cheeks.

"Oh, so you do".

"I- I don't, forehead".

"That's very convincing", Sakura said, still grinning.

"Well, atleast I don't go fangirling around like a little girl all the time", Haruka countered.

 _"I'm not a fangirl! I'm serious about Sasuke-kun! It's true love!"_ , she thought and clenched a fist.

"I'm- I'm not a fangirl!", said Sakura, trying to defend herself from Haruka's accusasions.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that", Haruka said as she stood up with a bunch of sticks in her arms, and started heading back to the camp. Sakura huffed, but followed her a couple of meters behind.

* * *

Sasuke was still interested in Kinzo's abilities. Not that it was any hard to counter an attack from Naruto, but his bloodline limit was impressive. It could probably be used well in battle.

"Was that a bloodline limit, that you used against Naruto?", Sasuke asked.

"Guess you could call it that. We call it 'the frying pan', our clan consist mainly of chefs. We heat up the metal and cook stuff on it, hence the name", he said. Sasuke looked at him, being left confused.

 _"Why would you use such an ability for something like that of all things?",_ thought Sasuke. "I don't think that's a very practical use fo—", Sasuke started, but was interrupted when Kinzo burst out laughing.

"Yo-you actually thought I was serious! Tha– that's hilarous!", he said between laughs. Sasuke blushed in embaressment and decided to ignore him after that.

* * *

When the genin had retrieved enough wood for the fire, they returned to the site where Obito and Kakashi sat on a couple of rocks, indeed having prepared a fireplace. It was rather big, making sure it would last the night.

Starting the fire was easy. They used some of the wood to get the fire burning, but saved most of it to feed the fire with later. Kakashi made a couple of hand signs and blew a small ball of fire into the fireplace, easily setting it on fire. Having a fire going wasn't necessary per say, it was pretty warm out. But a fire also gave them light, which would be important if they were attacked by someone during the night.

Obito stretched out his arms and let out a sigh. "Alright, time to get to bed. Just place your sleeping bag wherever you want and I'll keep watch over any enemies for an hour or two. Naruto I'll wake you up after that and it'll be your turn to keep watch. After that we'll go with Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Kinzo, Haruka and lastly Takasu. Sounds good?", Obito said. No one complained and they went to bed.

* * *

By the time it was Naruto's turn to keep watch, the sun had been down for quite a while, enveloping the surrounding woods in deep darkness. Naruto held a stick above the fire waiting for it to glow and then waved it restlessly in the air. The red glow of the stick contrasted the midnight blue sky, filled with stars. He did this in an attempt to entertain himself, but it didn't help his restless state at all. Naruto sighed and threw the stick in the fire and decided to relax instead, leaning back and listening to the sounds of crickets. Despite him having come to better terms with Takasu, he was still not very accepting of Kinzo and Haruka. Kinzo hadn't shown any signs of improvement in his behavior, so he still disliked the guy. Haruka... well he didn't know enough about her to judge her that much, but she hadn't been very kind to Sakura, which he couldn't accept.

 _"Maybe I should try to talk to them a bit more tomorrow. To get on a little bette—"_. Naruto stopped his train of thought when he heard a sudden sound coming a couple of meters away from him. It was a cracking sound; not loud, but noticable against the silence of the night. Naruto quickly shot his head towards the direction that the sound had come from. Scanning the area. He didn't see anything but the extending forest and a couple of bushes. Everything looked normal, but something felt... off. As if he was being watched.

 _"What was that, a stick? It was probably just an animal or some-"_. The sound came again, this time even louder. Naruto froze. The sound of crickets and the crackle of the fire had seemed to cease, and a cold breeze uncomfortably caressed his skin. Naruto swallowed hard and took out a kunai from his pouch, holding it tightly infront of him. He lifted himself from the rock he was sitting on and slowly made an approach towards the bushes where the sound had come from. After each step, his feet became heavier. His breath became quicker. He was only four steps away now. Only two. One. and—

"Naruto".

"AHHH!", Naruto yelled out, dropping his kunai to the ground. He turned around and was met with a dead faced Sasuke.

"What are you doing?", asked Sasuke.

"I- uh... There was a sound, coming from behind the bush", Naruto explained, pointing at the bushes where the sound had come from.

"So? It's a forest with animals, what'd you expect deadlast?".

"Huh!? It's not like I was scared or anything, just wanted to check it out. What if we were like being watched or something?", Naruto said. Sasuke walked past him and looked behind the bush, Naruto peeked over with him.

Nothing was there.

Sasuke looked at him for a minute, waiting for Naruto to respond.

"I-I swear I heared something 'ttebayo!", Naruto said, trying to convince Sasuke he wasn't crazy.

"Well, nothing was there, but if you say so. It's my turn to keep watch now, so you can go to bed".

Naruto crossed his arms and frowned at Sasuke before walking back to his sleeping bag, dragging it a couple of meters away to keep his distance from him before he went to sleep, making sure to get rest for the upcoming day.

* * *

"... are these guys for real?", said Sakura, watching the sleeping bodies of Obito and Naruto. The sun was already up, birds were chirping and everyone was already awake, ready to leave. They had expected the two of them to wake up eventually, but they were just as far away to waking up as they had been 20 minutes earlier. So now they were left having to wake them up by force. Kinzo was enjoying throwing small rocks on Naruto's face, making him flinch in his sleep.

"Takasu, could you use one of your water jutsu to wake them up?", Kakashi asked.

"Isn't that a little...", Takasu hesitated.

"No, no. It's fine. They won't wake up otherwise", Kakashi said convincingly. Takasu hesitated for a bit, but finally preformed a few hand signs and let a jet of water spray out of each of his hands, aiming at Obito and Naruto. Obito quickly woke up with a scream, and was completly confused over his surroundings. He looked around and witnessed everyone laughing at him, except for Takasu– who felt bad about it –and Sasuke, beacuse he's... well Sasuke.

Obito looked over at Kakashi, quickly realising that this is something that he would do. "What'd you do that for?!".

"Well you guys wouldn't wake up".

"Couldn't you have just shaked us awake instead?!".

"You'll need to get used to being wet, it's going to rain a lot in Amegakure", said Kakashi.

Kinzo was still laughing, even after everyone had stopped. It became apparent why when he pointed a finger at a soaking wet Naruto. "H-he's still sleeping! AHAHAHA".

"How is that even possible?", sighed Sakura.

It didn't take long for Naruto to wake up after Kinzo pinched his nose, forcing him awake. Obito and Naruto quickly got finished packing their stuff and they were soon ready to continue their travel to Amegakure. They were now well on their way towards the village again.

Naruto took a breath of air and looked up in the sky. For the most part it was clear blue, but he noticed large dark clouds in the distance. Every now and again a lightning flashed in the clouds. He assumed that it was probably coming from Amegakure, meaning they weren't that far away from the village anymore. Naruto increased his pace eagerly, but slowed down when he felt a chill run down his spine. He felt watched again. Like yesterday at the fire. He stopped and turned around. Revealing nothing but the endless trees of the forest.

"Already want to head back home?", asked Haruka mockingly. Naruto turned back to his teammates and crossed his arms.

"No! I was just checking for enemies!", he said and quickly ran back to the group.

As they got closer and closer to the village, the amount of clouds above them increased. The sky got darker and darker. And the forest became increasingly dense and green– maybe because of the damper climate. The chirping of birds became less evident, being replaced by the low rumbling of thunder. Eventually they felt cold, heavy raindrops fall from the sky. Having to put on cloaks to protect from the rain.

They finally reached the outskirts of the village after they pushed through a large bush. The village was surrounded by a large gloaming lake, the water vibrating as heavy raindrops fell down on it's surface. The whole village looked flooded, it's elevation not being very high above the body of water. The village itself was dark and lifeless. Industrial buildings stretched gloomingly up in the sky, enveloped by a dense mist. There was a slender bridge that strechted above the lake, providing entry to the village.

 _"This place looks kind of creepy"_ , Sakura thought, shuddering.

"All right, here we are", said Obito and turned over to his students. "Take off your headbands and hide your ninja gear. Konoha and Amegakure aren't in a very good realtionship, so it's best to just act like we're tourists", he said as he himself took off his own headband. Everyone followed Obito's instructions, having no reason to complain.

"So! What happens now?", Naruto asked, jumping up and down.

"As I've said, we're just gonna try to find out what is happening here. So we'll check things out, talk to villagers and investigate anything that seems off. To make things more efficient, we'll split up into our respective teams", Obito explained. Naruto jumped in the air.

"Yes, suck it!", Naruto said to Kinzo and Haruka.

"Hey we're pretty happy to not have you guys around too", said Haruka. Naruto glared at her. "... Especially you forehead", she said mockingly to Sakura.

 _ **"What'd you just say?!"**_ , raged Inner-Sakura.

Obito and Kakashi sighed at their students. "Well uh, I guess we'll take the west side of the village", Obito said.

"Alright, we'll go east. Let's meet up her tomorrow morning", he said and Obito nodded in agreement.

"Let's go!", Obito said and started off towards the village. They crossed the bridge and easily got inside of the village. There wasn't even a gate, anyone could simply walk inside. Once they got inside, the two teams seperated to their own respective side of the village. As team seven walked through the long twisting streets, Naruto felt an unpleasent chill in the air. There was something about the place that felt off. The way the rain filled the streets with water, even with countless drains. The way the lifeless buildings stretched infinetly up in the air, looking as if they could fall at any moment, if not for the large pipes that supported them. The sharp smell of oil. The lack of any life in the village. The way people covered their faces with the hoods of their raincoats. It all seemed so unfriendly and cold. Naruto could understand what Takasu meant when he was talking about the village, it was certainly not a place he would want to live in.

"This place seems a little... weird", said Sakura, expressing Naruto's thoughts.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Mhm! Totally".

"Yeah, it is. It's quite different from Konoha at least", Obito said. Despite having heard a lot about Amegakure's lack of... warmth? This was worse than he'd imagine. Obito suddenly stopped when he noticed a foodstand. It was tinylike, squeezed between two buildings. There was a warm light that came from it and it emit a pleasent smell. It was very welcoming– in contrast to the rest of the village. Upon seeing the word "dango" plastered on a sign above the foodstall, an excited Obito couldn't help but walk towards it. A confused Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke followed him inside.

"Uh, what are we doing here Obito-sensei?", asked Sasuke.

"Well uh, I was a bit hungry and they sell dango here! Dango is just too delicious to pass, you know! So I figured we'd take a bit of a break", Obito said, smiling cheerfully.

 _"We haven't even done anything yet..."_ , thought Sakura.

"Eh!? Can't we eat ramen instead?", Naruto asked.

"That's what you're concerned about?...", commented Sakura under her breath.

"Nah, dango is better", Obito said as he sat down on a chair. Sasuke sighed, but sat to join him with the rest of his teammates. The resturant owner was an old lady, white haired and short. She gave them a friendly smile and asked for their orders. Obito made a very specific order of dango, having to go over his order twice before the lady could fully catch what he wanted. Naruto asked for ramen, but when the lady said they didn't have any, he settled for the first best thing on the menu. After they were all done ordering, they had to wait awhile for the food to get ready. To pass time, Obito began some small talk with the old lady.

"It sure rains a lot here", Obito said to the lady. She nodded approvingly.

"Yes, it certainly does. You're not from around here I assume?", she said, laughing slightly.

"No, we are shino— ouch!", Naruto started, but got cut off midsentence when Sakura kicked him in the leg. "Ah, I mean, we're travelers, travelers! We explore the world and stuff!". The lady chuckled in amusement.

"Oh, that sounds very interesting! But why'd you travel to a place like Amegakure of all places? Especially with how things are now...".

"How things are now?", Obito asked, his head tilting to the side.

"Well, it's just that people have been turning crazy in this village lately! Talking about some 'god' protecting the village. It's all rubish I tell you!", she said waving her hands dissmissivley. Team 7 shared a keen look with each other.

"God?", asked Obito.

"You don't know?", she asked. Obito shook his head. "Well ever since Hanzou died, some people have said it was the actions of some sort of god. They say he will achieve world peace. It's all just rubbish of course!", she said. Obito looked confused, eyebrows narrowed.

"Wait... Hanzou's dead?", he asked.

"You didn't know?", she asked. Obito shook his head slowly.

"Uhm... who's this Hanzou guy 'ttebayo?", Naruto asked.

"I thought you guys were supposed to be travelers. Shouldn't you know a bit more about the world?", she asked chuckling slightly. Naruto forced an akward smile and itched the back of his head.

"Ehe... yeah, probably".

"He was the leader of Amegakure, not a very good one mind you. Very violent person he was", she said. She then went back over to the kitchen where the chef had prepared their food. "I'm assuming that's why so many people are saying that he was killed by some god. They appreciate that he was killed, but honestly this village is still a mess. No one has any sort of control of this place anymore", she continued as she brought the food and laid it out in front of them.

"Here's your orders!", the old lady said, giving them a plate of dango each.

"If Hanzou's dead, then who's in charge now?", Obito asked.

"We don't know. All we know is that a new person is in charge. They won't tell us who though". Obito furrowed his brow.

 _"Something's really weird here"_ , he thought.

"What's up with all the mising shinobi?", Obito asked casually, eating a piece of dango. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura finally understood that Obito hadn't just come here to eat dango, but used it as an excuse to get information from a villager aswell.

 _"So that's what he's doing! He's actullay very good at this stuff, he doesn't seem suspicious at all"_ , Sakura thought.

"The missing shinobi? Hmmm yes, it's certainly strange. Generally I wouldn't think much of it, Amegakure isn't known for it's safety, but...", she started.

"But?", asked Sasuke.

"... Well. All the shinobi who've gone missing aren't just normal shinobi, but very powerful ones. The are all known for having extreme chakra reserves. It's very strange", she said.

"That's weird! Right Obito-sensei?", Naruto asked, but didn't get a response. Naruto looked over at Obito, but he had his head turned and was looking behind them, not seeming to give them any attention. "Obito-sensei?", Naruto asked again. Obito turned back to Naruto and nodded, but he looked lost in thought and concern was evident in his face.

"Yeah, it's strange". Obito finished his dango quickly and stood up, laying a few coins on the table. "Sorry, but we've got to go. Thanks for your time", he said with a smile and quickly left, walking with quick steps through the rain. His students were confused.

"Hey, hey! I hadn't finished my dango yet!", Naruto said, who had found himself enjoying the dango more than he'd expected.

"We could have asked her about more things, don't you think?", asked Sakura. Obito stopped when they reached the end of an alleyway. He looked around the area before finally talking.

"Someone has been watching us". Worry struck the genin. Had someone been watching them the whole time?

"W-who?", Naruto asked.

"I dunno know, he covered his head with his hood", Obito said. "... I don't feel very good about this mission. Something isn't right"

"Aren't you overreacting?", Sasuke commented sharply, not wanting to cancel the mission because of something like this.

"Trust me, something just isn't right, I can feel it", he said and looked around once again before he continued speaking. "Listen, we're going to stay low and be as careful as possible. We'll meet up with team four right away and abort the mission", he said commandingly, his students hesitated. "Alright?", he said lifting his eyebrows. The genin finally agreed with reluctant nods. Obito let out a breath and let his body loosen up a bit.

"Alright, let's get goi-", he started but suddenly hurled and held a hand over his stomache.

"Sensei! What's wrong?", asked Sakura. Obito turned over and cracked a painful smile.

"Ahahaha... stomachache. I think I ate those dangos a bit too quickly", he said. "I just have to go to the toilet quickly, I'll be right back", he said and quickly rushed over to a public restroom.

 _"That's kind of lame..."_ , thought Sakura as she put her palm to her face.

"This is ridiculous, why is he getting so paranoid over this?", said Sasuke.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Yeah, yeah. I don't want to go back home ye—"

"Uzumaki Naruto...".

A deep voice called out behind them. The genin turned around hastily, revealing the figure of a tall slender man. He was wearing a black cloak decorated with red clouds. His eyes were thin and tired. Wet black hair fell down over his face, covering a slashed Suna headband. The genin backed off, making sure to keep their distance from the man.

"W-who are you? ", Naruto asked with a shaky voice.

"Me?... It's not really that important", he said and took a step towards them.

"What do you want?", Sasuke asked, pulling forward a kunai. The man looked into Sasuke's eyes for a second. He gave a lopsided grin and then audibly cracked his right pinky. Sasuke suddenly lost his balance and fell to the ground with a heavy thump.

 _"What's happening? I can't move my muscles properly!"_ , he thought as he struggled to get up from the ground. His body felt as if it was being pushed down and the pouring rain made it seem all the more heavier to move.

"Sasuke-kun!", Sakura shouted and ran up to him, kneeling down beside him. "Wh-what did you do to him?" she said through gritted teeth as she looked up at the man threateningly in the eyes. He cracked his left pinky and she too fell down to the ground. _"I-I can't move!"_ , she thought, realising that her body was stuck in place. The man then completley shifted his focus away from the two, and put his attention back to Naruto. Naruto backed away, his legs starting to shake.

"Uzumaki Naruto... you posses something inside of you that we want...". Naruto's eyes widened, his heartbeat increasing. Naruto was left completly still, only moving backwards as the man approached him. He hit a wall behind him and was now cornered.

The man reached his hands forward towards Naruto. "... yes. You know what I'm talking about... The Ky—". A strong hand gripped his forearm, not letting it go. He diverted his eyes towards the person who'd grabbed hold of him and saw the black in Uchiha Obito's eyes shift to a dark bloodred.

 ** _Next Chapter: The Ghost of Konoha_**

* * *

 **AN:** Ohhh, kinda left you on a cliffhanger there! Sorry about that.

Honestly this chapter was really fucking hard to write. I don't know why exactly, but I really pushed myself to get it done either way. I'm not sure if I'm completly happy with the end result, but I could change things over and over again and still not be happy. I figured it's better to get these chapters out at a bit more of a regular rate, so I've got to ditch my perfectionism a bit. I think my writing will get better by time, so I'll probably revisit these chapters later to make the better reperesent the vision that I have in my head.

Still, I hope you could enjoy this chapter, I think it was alright atleast. Next chapter is hopefully going to be pretty great, there's going to be a lot of fighting, so look forward to that!

With that said, it's time for me to start working on the next chapter! See you and have a happy holidays!

Thank you for the follows, favorites and reviews. It really keeps me motivated :)  
(I also appreciate constructive feedback and even negative reviews. As long as I can learn and improve from it, I don't mind it. So feel free to write whatever critiscism you may have).


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